Playboy Interview: Chris Tucker

A candid conversation with the Rush Hour star about Don hnus, hanging out with Bill Clinton and Bono and why he just doesn't work that much

When Chris Tucker takes the screen alongside Jackie Chan this summer as the lethal-tongued top James Carter in Rush Hour 3, the under­standable reaction of most of America will be, Where the hell has he been ?

Tucker hasn't appeared on-screen in six years, and he has made only three films since 1998—all of them Rush Hour movies. Yet he remains one of America's most bankable stars. His spike in salary—$2 million for the first, $20 million for the sequel and $25 million against 20 percent for Rush Hour 3—is one of the most dramatic m Hollywood history; he earns as much for a film as Eddie Murphy, Jim Carrey, Adam Sandier, Will Ferrell and Ben Stiller. While they cash checks once or twice a year. Tucker, 35, seems more intent on turning moi'ies down, ei'erythingfrom the Any Given Sunday role that launched Jamie Foxx to the Pink Panther remake that Steve Martin turned into a hit.

"I'm not advocating six-year screen absences, but there is a reason De Beers doesn't flood the market with diamonds, and Chris hasn't hurt himself by leaving his audience wanting more," says New Line president Toby Emmerich, who oversaw several attempts to make Rush Hour 3 before finally getting Tucker to sign his contract.

His brief list of movie credits doesn V mean he hasn't been busy, howei'er. Like a fast-talking, far hipper Forrest Gump, Tucker has traveled the world and turned up in the center of major

events. When Kanye West shocked a Hurricane Katrina fund-raiser audience on live TV with a charge that President Bush didn't care about blacks, Tucker was right there. When Bono and Bill Clinton barnstormed Africa, raising awareness about AIDS and other problems, Tucker rode shotgun. When Michael Jackson stood trial on charges that he molested a cancer-stricken 13-year-old boy. Tucker was in the courthouse, testifying on Jacko's behalf.

Tucker, who is from Decatur, Georgia, was the youngest of six children in a working-class family. His mother was involved in the church; his father owned a janitorial service. The class clown found an outlet for his electric wit on the stand-up stage. Working Atlanta clubs by the age of I7, Tucker got his big break a few years later in L.A. when a killer set on HBO's Def Comedy Jam showcase got him his first movie role: 90 seconds in House Party 3. It led to Fri­day, in which he played Ice Cube's weed-happy sidekick: turns in Dead Presidents, Jackie Brown, Money Talks and The Fifth Element followed. Then came Rush Hour, in which his corrosive humor proved a perfect complement to Jackie Chan's fists and feet. The culture-clash comedy grossed $247 million worldwide, and the sequel did even better at $329 million. His wealth has given him the ability to travel, be picky about film roles and spend more time in Los Angeles with his eight-year-old son, who

lives with his mother. Tucker, who has never married, also maintains a home in Atlanta.

playboy sent Michael Fleming to catch up with the elusive movie star. "We met the first time at the Beverly Hills Hotel," reports Fleming. "Tucker was completing the final few weeks of production on Rush Hour 3, which was three weeks over its production schedule. We talked several more times, and at each meet­ing Tucker wanted to show his serious side. He probably has the most complex reaction to fame and success I've ever encountered."

PLAYBOY: Since 1998 Eddie Murphy has starred in 16 movies, Ben Stiller in 19, Adam Sandier in 13, Jim Carrey in 10 and Will Ferrell in 14. You have made three, and they are all Rush Hour movies. Don't you like making movies? TUCKER: I hadn't planned to be away this long, but nothing came by that sparked my interest. I know people wonder. They say, "What is he doing? Why is he just doing Rush Hours}" It wasn't on purpose. But I have a long career ahead of me. I don't pay attention to what everybody else is doing. PLAYBOY: But what exactly have you been doing?

TUCKER: Living my life. Traveling. Then when a movie comes along and I feel 1

can do my best and have fun, 1 take it. I thought Rush Hour 3 would be fun. PLAYBOY: But it has been about six years since Rush Hour 2. That's a long time to be unemployed. TUCKER: Look, I love to create on the set. 1 just had other stuff to do. Your life reflects on your work. PLAYBOY: With such long gaps, though, might your audience forget you? Might you become less bankable? TUCKER: I believe my fans will be there. As long as you do your best when you do work, people will come see your movies. On the other hand, if you do a lot of stuff for the wrong reasons, you lose them. I'm confident that when I do movies, even if they are 10 Rush

Hours, they're going to be the best 10 sequels you're ever going to see.

PLAYBOY: Don't you get rusty? TUCKER: If you do a lot of movies, you can better your­self by seeing what you did wrong and correcting it, but you don't have time to come up with something different. By the time I did Rush Hour 3, I'd evolved as a whole dif­ferent person. I did have to go on the road as a comedian, though, to get my timing back. I did 20 cities before I started Rush Hour 3, and then I was ready to go. PLAYBOY: After six years how was it to work again with Jackie Chan?

TUCKER: Jackie Chan and I have this great chemistry. We're both so different. He's the best at what he does. I think I'm the best at what I do. Put it all together and it's a perfect mixture. PLAYBOY: Where do you rank Chan and Tucker in the long list of Hollywood movie buddies? TUCKER: Mel Gibson and Danny Clover in Lethal Weapon are first. Second are Eddie Mur­phy and Nick Nolte in 48 Hrs. Richard Prvor and Gene

Wilder in Stir Crazy are third. We rank below them.

PLAYBOY: How many flops does a star get before he's in trouble? TUCKER: Not many. If you do a movie you love and it doesn't make a bunch of money, people say, "He was trying to be creative." But if you do a lot of stuff that doesn't mean anything, peo­ple get tired of you. PLAYBOY: You once said if you're young and black and you do a bad movie, you're finished. Is there a different standard for African-American actors? TUCKER: I don't know when I said that, but I don't think it's a black or white thing. You've got to do good movies that people want to see. If you make

flops, I don't think you'll be making many movies, no matter who you are. PLAYBOY: When you're out in public, do your fans still recognize you? TUCKER: I go to the mall and they call me by my characters' names. 'James Carter!" I'm like, "Man, my name is Chris Tucker." Or they say, "Hey, Smokey!" PLAYBOY: You played Smokey, a char­acter with a certain fondness for mari­juana, in Friday in 1995. TUCKER: Just yesterday two white teenag­ers came to my house. I don't get much company, so I looked out the peephole. I was in my housecoat. I had a do-rag on my head. They said, "We're your neighbors. Do you want to smoke some weed?" Then they started quoting from

Friday. "It's Friday. You ain't got no job! You ain't got shit to do." So I've got neighbors' kids knocking on my door, looking to smoke weed with Smokey.

PLAYBOY: Did you?

TUCKER: No way. I don't smoke weed. PLAYBOY: Chan almost killed himself doing stunts in his movies. Is there peer pressure to keep up with him? TUCKER: At the beginning it wasn't peer pressure; I was just up for the challenge. I said, "He does his own stunts. I can too." Not anymore. I let him do all the dangerous stuff for Rush Hour 3 and let my stuntman do mine. PLAYBOY: Have you ever been hurt on a set? TUCKER: I got carpet burn in a fight scene in the first Rush Hour. Jackie yanked

me along on my back. Another time 1 jumped onto a moving bus. I did crazy stuff for the first Rush Hour because I wanted to keep up with Jackie. PLAYBOY: How about the fight scenes? Who would come out on top if you and Chan were to have a real go at it? TUCKER: I would whup Jackie's ass. PLAYBOY: Isn't he a martial-arts master? TUCKER: 1 don't think he's that strong. And I talk more junk. PLAYBOY: How would that help? TUCKER: 1 would wear him out. "Bring it on, Jackie. Come on!" I wouldn't let up. Eventually Jackie would say, "I don't want to deal with this," and he'd walk away. PLAYBOY: Your fast talking doesn't always help. Two years ago a cop gave you a

speeding ticket that, according to the press, wound up costing you 56,500.

TUCKER: In California you get pulled over, and the cops will let you go because they recognize you—they've seen your movies. But this happened in the South. The guy didn't know who I was. I'm saying, "Hey, man, haven't you seen Rush Hour?" I actu­ally had a copy of the movie in the trunk. He looked at it and said, "You don't look like that guy standing there with the Chinese guy" I really was late for church, but nobody seems to believe it.

PLAYBOY: Perhaps that's because the church in ques­tion was 200 miles away. TUCKER: Yeah, I had no busi­ness trying to get there with the amount of time I had. I was in the wrong. It's why I sped. PLAYBOY: But $6,500? Who gets a $(>,500 speeding ticket? TUCKER: That's about what 1 paid. The police wanted to make an example of a famous person. PLAYBOY: What were you driving? TUCKER: A Bentley GT. PLAYBOY: At what speed? TUCKER: A hundred and change. Nothing crazy. PLAYBOY: Nothing crazy?

TUCKER: It was Sunday morning. Nobody was on the road. I wasn't driving out of control. And that's nothing for that car. PLAYBOY: For Rush Hour 3 you made S25 million against 20 percent of the gross, with a deal for another film that will pay you another S20 million. You earned 52 million for the original. That's prob­ably the largest leap in salary an actor ever made between three movies. TUCKER: My movies have done well, so I get paid well.

PLAYBOY: Rush Hour 3 fell weeks behind its shooting schedule. In some reports, you were responsible because you insisted on rewriting your scenes. TUCKER: It's not at all true. They went over schedule because it's a big movie

and they shot a lot. It didn't have any­thing to do with me. PLAYBOY: How much improvisation occurred during shooting? TUCKER: The original movie was all improv. The most memorable thing from that was one line everyone remem­bers. When I first meet Jackie, I say, "Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?" Everybody repeats that quote. It's on their cell phones. There are many others in the first Rush Hour, like "Don't ever touch a black man's radio." That led to "Don't ever jump in front of a black man in a buffet line" in Rush Hour 2. PLAYBOY: In the first Rush Hour you and Chan both use the .V word. Lately there's been a lot of criticism of those who use it, even as a joke. TUCKER: It's a personal choice. I don't want to say the word on TV, and I had a big issue with it in Rush Hour 3. It wasn't in the origi­nal script, but it was in a later version. When 1 read it, I said, "We shouldn't say it. We'll have a lot of kids watching. We don't need it." It became a big discussion, but it was dropped. The joke really wasn't that funny. I try to watch what I do and say, especially with this movie. But the decision to use the word or not is up to the individual. PLAYBOY: It's spoken repeatedly in your memorable scene with Samuel L. Jackson in Quentin Tarantino's_/a£/rfe> Broum. Jackson

defended his use of the word when Spike Lee and others objected to its use in a movie made by a white guy. Did you agree? TUCKER: Back then I wasn't even think­ing that much about how words like that affect people. But I do now. PLAYBOY: What would you say if the movie were offered to you now? TUCKER: I wouldn't do it. I don't know how old I was then, but I'm a different person now. Hopefully, we evolve as we get older. Hopefully, we better ourselves. No, I wouldn't do that dialogue now. PLAYBOY: You were standing next to Kanye West during the Hurricane Katrina tele­thon right before he said President Bush doesn't care about black people. What did you think of his statement? TUCKER: Kanye didn't tell me he was going to say it. 1 didn't know what to think. I don't know if what he said helped any. It was defi­nitely shocking. But maybe it did help, and maybe he was the right person to say it. PLAYBOY: How did it help? TUCKER: By waking people up. The people in New Orleans needed help, and nobody was helping them. I didn't realize then how bad it was, but he had a lot of infor­mation. It was the right place to say it, on national TV for everybody to hear. PLAYBOY: Race came up recently when Don Imus called the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos." Would you have fired him?

TUCKER: I don't know what he deserved, but it was blown up into something much bigger than it needed to be. PLAYBOY: Didn't you find it objectionable? TUCKER: Sure, but none of us would have known what he'd said if they hadn't made it into such a big thing. How many of us actually listened to the guy? I didn't. I heard about it on the radio, and I thought they were talking about Allen Iverson, because their names sounded similar and I didn't know who Imus was. I'm thinking, Allen Iverson has gotten in trouble again? Obviously, this guy Imus has some problems. It's immature of him to have said that. You might say things when you're a kid, but you'd like to think people evolve. But who cares? PLAYBOY: Have we become overly sensitive about what's all right to say and what isn't? TUCKER: I think we should be able to hear what people think, about black people and white people. It's good to know. I don't think we should censor. If that's how Don Imus feels about blacks, we need to know; then we can decide to listen to him or not. People who feel the same way he does should have the freedom to listen to him. We've got to be careful about judging one another. You could be onstage and say some­thing you don't normally say. Some­thing can come out wrong. PLAYBOY: When Seinfeld's Michael

Richards went on a racist tirade against a heckler, was it something that just came out wrong?

TUCKER: Obviously he was frustrated that his stand-up wasn't working, and the guy was being rude. He wanted to hurt the guy as much as he could. I don't know if he meant what he said, but he said it. Let it go, though. He apologized. I think he learned his lesson.

PLAYBOY: In his Playboy Intenriew, Jamie Foxx admitted he was losing his edge after he started making money. He said he was humbled into working harder when a young Chris Tucker followed him onstage and whipped a lethargic crowd into a frenzy. Other comics have lost their edge when they became successful. Could it happen to you? TUCKER: I don't think so. I've experi­enced so much unbelievable stuff since I became famous. Hanging out with Michael Jackson. Michael and Barry Gibb singing songs together while we were watching the Oscars. Then 1 went with Michael to watch Prince perform. Michael Jackson is saying [high voice], "Well, what do you think?" What do I think? I'm sitting here with the king, watching Prince! This is off the hook! Or I'm hanging out with Bill Clinton on Air Force One when he was president. PLAYBOY: What does Chris Tucker talk about with Bill Clinton? TUCKER: He's got more charisma than I've ever seen in anybody. He knows every­body. He's like James Bond. I started imitating him on a trip to Africa. He liked it so much, he made me do it in every country we went to. He was like [imitating Clinton], "Tucker! Tucker! Come over here, Tucker! Do that impression for President Olusegun Obasanjo!" So here is the president of Nigeria and his delegation—the heads of his army, every­body—watching me. [as Clinton] "I'm absolutely honored to be here in your country. I wish Hillary could be here. We love your country." The president of Nigeria is looking at me, and then he smiles, [imitating Obasanjo] "That's very funny! Very funny! What a funny guy!" Then they leave me there and go in the next room for a private meeting. PLAYBOY: You'd served your purpose? TUCKER: I was the clown in the palace. He says [05 Obasanjo], "Get the clown and everybody else something to eat. Come here, Mr. President, and let's talk." Later President Clinton would whisper to me [as Clinton], "I know where Bin Laden is, Tucker, but you can't tell nobody." PLAYBOY: You have also hung out in Jordan with Ring Abdullah. How did you meet him?

TUCKER: I met him at some functions. We had mutual friends. He's a regular guy. PLAYBOY: The king of Jordan is a regu­lar guy?

TUCKER: Well, a regular guy who owns his own country. PLAYBOY: You stayed in his palace. How

does it compare with the Four Seasons? TUCKER: It's the most beautiful place in the world. You can see Egypt on one side and Israel on the other. You see out over the sea. He not only has this unbe­lievably beautiful country, but when you go out on the water with him, subma­rines are following. PLAYBOY: How do you address him? TUCKER: I had to figure. Do I say "King"? "Your Majesty"? I found out you do call him Your Majesty, but for me it became "Yo, Majesty."

PLAYBOY: Was the king a good tour guide? TUCKER: I'm a Christian, and after he told me about places where Jesus walked and all this historical biblical stuff. I told him I wanted to see it. He made it happen—like that. He took me in a helicopter over the desert down the Jordan River to a stone city carved between canyons. We landed in the middle of the desert. He turned off the helicopter. There was such a feeling of complete silence that it scared me, man. I told him to turn the helicopter back on. Tell you the truth, it was the single best night I had in my life. PLAYBOY: A guy could get spoiled travel­ing like that.

TUCKER: The best thing is to have a friend with a plane. I'd rather jump on somebody else's plane. That's my thing. You don't have to worry about anything. Just be the entertainment. My problem is that I have more luggage than the person who owns the plane. They might need to leave their skis behind to fit in all my luggage. It makes you a little uncomfortable on a long flight, knowing that a person had to leave their luggage off their own plane, but it's cool. PLAYBOY: How often do you hang with royalty?

TUCKER: I went to the house of the crown prince of Bahrain. He was another fun guy. Michael Jackson and I went to Dubai together and hung out at the palace there, too. Even Michael was blown away by the place. They had to kick me out. They came to me and said [in a Middle Eastern accent], "The king is leaving tomorrow, and you have to go too." Well, he's coming back, ain't he? But they said, "You have to go now." PLAYBOY: Do you ever make it outside the palace walls?

TUCKER: I was with friends in Lebanon. I needed a haircut, so I went out to get one and found myself in an alley. I learned they don't cut hair with clip­pers; they use a razor. Now, the people were nice. I never felt like I was in dan­ger. But I'm by myself and basically the only black man in Lebanon, in an alley with a razor blade pressed against my neck. I'm thinking. Lord have mercy, I hope this isn't it. PLAYBOY: How was the haircut? TUCKER: It was the best haircut I ever had in my life. And the most exciting haircut I ever had in my life.

PLAYBOY: What's dinner-table conversa­tion like when you are hanging out with Middle Eastern kings and princes? Do you discuss Iraq and Israel? TUCKER: They deal with that stuff 24/7. With me, it's a good time for them to escape that. I ask them, "What's it like owning your own country? What's it like having your own army?" They ask, "How is it working with Jackie Chan?" PLAYBOY: How are black people treated there?

TUCKER: I never felt racism, but most of the time I wasn't walking the streets. I was hang­ing out with the king or the crown prince. PLAYBOY: You've used your friendship with Michael Jackson as stand-up mate­rial and have done impersonations of him. Do you worry about offending him? Do you run them by him first? TUCKER: With him or anyone, I never say something that will be like, "Hey, that's messed up," when they hear it. If I'm going to say something, it won't be mean. I don't want them saying, "Damn, I thought he was my friend!" PLAYBOY: Does being nice restrict you as a comedian?

TUCKER: I still say stuff nobody else could say. Nobody else could talk about going to the movies with Michael Jackson and hanging out with Bill Clinton. No other comedian could say they've done that. PLAYBOY: What's it like to go to a movie with Jackson?

TUCKER: You sit there quietly because if people in the theater know Michael is there, the whole place will erupt. PLAYBOY: How does he avoid being recognized?

TUCKER: Most of the time he has some kind of disguise on or a hood over his head. Otherwise his fans always trip out. PLAYBOY: You testified in court when he was charged with child molestation. Did you have qualms about testifying? TUCKER: I knew that family and was sub­poenaed. I just went up and said what I had to say. It wasn't as if I was on anybody's side. They made me come to court. PLAYBOY: But you testified that you had warned Jackson about the boy's family. You told him, "Be careful. I don't like the vibe here." Because of the multimillion-dollar payout Jackson made to a child years before, a lot of America would say your advice should have been to cut kids out of his circle completely. TUCKER: I really don't want to talk about it. All I had to do was go to court when they asked me lo come. They asked, "How did you know the family?" That was it. PLAYBOY: After the beating his image has taken, does Jackson seem depressed? TUCKER: He's doing good. Michael is a genius, a creative being in a whole other reality. He's been famous so long that he's on a different level. We're going to see a lot more from Michael. PLAYBOY: Lately you've spent more time in Africa than on movie sets. What prompted those trips?

TUCKER: Actually, I have been to 12 or 13 different countries in Africa, and I've gone on trips with Bono, Paul O'Neill— when he was Treasury secretary—Presi­dent Clinton and Colin Powell. PLAYBOY: Has it changed you? TUCKER: I love going there. I found a purpose there. I love the kids. Some U.S. doctors and I are going to part­ner with the Chris Tucker Foundation and try to help. There are 12 million orphans in Africa. We're going to try to improve health care and education. Going to Africa broadened my perspec­tive and made me realize that the world is not all about me. It's not about mak­ing a bunch of money. Knowing that people there don't have clean water to drink and how so many kids don't have parents, it makes you grow up. It makes you care.

PLAYBOY: Do people recognize you in Africa?

TUCKER: I was with Bono in Ethiopia. Surprisingly, they were more familiar with me. He's way more visible than I am around the world, but in Africa they were like, "Chris! Chris Tucker!" It was

something to know that in some places more people recognized me than the biggest rock star in the world. PLAYBOY: Other celebrities, including Ange­lina Jolie and Madonna, have followed you and become involved in Africa. TUCKER: We first went to Africa when nobody was going. Bono and I did an MTV docu­mentary in Ethiopia, Uganda and other countries. Suddenly it was like, "What's going on in .Africa?" It became okay to go. We helped connect America with Africa through a young generation. Angelina Jolie started adopting kids from Africa, and I feel a lot of that is because of Bono. On my side, a lot of hip-hop artists connected me with Africa and said, "I didn't know that was going on there." Now you've got all the hip-hop and R&B artists—Alicia Keys, Jay-Z—going. I think it has made a differ­ence. There needs to be a trickle effect that spreads to India and countries in Europe that are less fortunate. PLAYBOY: Jolie and Madonna have adopted African children. Have you con­sidered following them? TUCKER: I feel I can do better by going there, touching the kids, telling them

there is a big world out there, giving them hope and telling them to keep dreaming—that whatever they want in life can happen. I know I can't adopt every kid in Africa. If I adopted one. I would have to put all my energv into that one kid. For me, it's better to go to African schools and talk to the kids and touch their hands and give them my autograph. I can make them laugh and tell them it's possible to get whatever they want in life.

PLAYBOY: You once planned to do a movie in which you'd play the first black presi­dent. What happened? TUCKER: It never came together the way I wanted it to. It had to be funny, but I didn't want some stereotype—acting up at White House cookouts. He needed to be someone like Barack. PLAYBOY: Could Barack Obama make the premise obsolete? Could he win? TUCKER: I don't know. I think the coun­try has become more open-minded, and people want a leader who can make them feel comfortable. They don't care what color, I hope.

PLAYBOY: You're a comedian, an actor and an activist. Which impresses women more?

TUCKER: Comedy. When you're a come­dian, you're being seen. You're more in touch with everyday life, more likely to meet a girl and make her laugh. You've told her everything about your­self onstage. Movie stars play charac­ters, but comedians are real. You're constantly using your mind. You know how to segue yourself into a girl's heart, into her mind.

PLAYBOY: Did you ever get carried away and become swept up in that Paris Hilton-type fast lane?

TUCKER: We all do. You go through that phase—it's so much fun—and then you get over it.

PLAYBOY: What's the hardest thing about having a serious relationship once you're famous? TUCKER: Trust. In high school you had to work to let a girl know you were interested, to get her interested in you. There was a whole courtship ritual, and you knew she was there because of you. When you're famous, you say, "What's your name? Give me your number." You forget about the beau­tiful things you did when you were younger. Now the first thing a woman sees is Chris Tucker the movie star. I can be in denial about that. I was for a while. But if you make movies, you'll be a popular guy. Who wouldn't want to date a movie star? Who wouldn't want to take Halle Berry out? The downside is it's just much harder to trust. PLAYBOY: Is that why you haven't married? TUCKER: That's part of it but not all. But trust is a real problem. How do you know? You don't. You might bump into some good girls and never take it to the next level because you don't know.

PLAYBOY: Would you like to get married? TUCKER: I do want to, but maybe what I have to do is not look for it at all. PLAYBOY: You're the father of an eight-year-old boy. Did fatherhood change you?

TUCKER: Yes, it changes you. It makes you watch what you say. I have made a choice not to use certain words. PLAYBOY: Your character in the movie Friday smokes a lot of pot. Are you okay with your son watching? TUCKER: He's seen the film, and he understands it was a role in a movie. I don't try to keep my son or anybody away from what I've done. Even then I played that character the way I wanted to. He doesn't carry around a 40-ounce. He isn't rude. He smokes weed, but he doesn't harm anybody. He's just a guy who likes to have fun and smoke a little weed. He's young, and that's reality. Everybody smokes weed at a certain point in life and feels there's nothing wrong with some herb. That's why people related to him so much. We captured something that happens in real life.

PLAYBOY: You travel on private jets now, but you grew up in a working-class fam­ily of six kids. Vacations must have been different when you were your son's age. TUCKER: We went to Florida a few times. I felt it was the most exciting time of my life. We rolled up like the family on Good Times, me with my Mr. T T-shirt on. It would be hot, my mom would put that grease on us. and we couldn't wait to get to the beach and the hot sun. PLAYBOY: You were the youngest of six. Which of you won the fight for the win­dow seat?

TUCKER: I was the youngest, so fighting my brothers and sisters for the window was like Cuba messing with America. I knew my place: I went right in the middle. I was just happy to be in the car, going somewhere. "Y'all fight if you want to, but I'm going to sit right here on the hump."

PLAYBOY: Which sibling did you fight with most?

TUCKER: My brother Dexter, who is next to me in age, haunted me most. We were always stuck together like cell mates. We always fought, and each one would swear he'd won. We'd try not to hit each other in the face, then cross the line once in a while and swear we'd never speak to each other again. PLAYBOY: Did you run to Mom for protection?

TUCKER: Yeah, but when my mom or my dad came home and we were fighting, they'd whup both of us. We'd plead our case, but they didn't care who started it. My daddy, he would whup you in a minute. He had his own jani­torial service, so we used to clean up McDonald's. Burger King, office build­ings and restaurants at night. 1 used to half do the job. Sweep those french

fries under the table—but nicely, so you wouldn't see them. My dad would come along and pull everything out. He'd say, "Look at all this!" I'd say, "It was clean until you started messing it up." Then he'd give me a whupping in front of everybody.

PLAYBOY: Do you discipline your son the way your dad disciplined you? TUCKER: I'm not sure that's a good thing. I don't whup my son. Maybe a little when he was younger, but I'm a different type of dad. I talk to my son, tell him not to do stuff that I used to do. But whup him? Nah. He's a good kid. PLAYBOY: In one of your comedy rou­tines, you said, "When you're in high school, you're your mama's baby, but when you graduate, you're that nigga walking around the house." Did your parents pressure you to go to college? TUCKER: I barely got out of high school. School was a little difficult for me—and boring. But I was smart. By I Oth grade I knew that I wasn't going to college and that I had to get a plan. I said, "Mama, don't worry about me wasting your money, because I'm not going to

college." All around me people were saying, "I'm going to college." I said, "You go ahead." Or they'd say, "I'm going into the Marines or the Air Force or the Army,' and I'd say, "I definitely ain't doing that, because you got to get up way too early." PLAYBOY: What led to show business? TUCKER: I loved watching Richard Pryor in Stir Crazy and Eddie Murphy in 48 Hrs. I was fascinated with mov­ies. By 10th grade I said, "That is what I'm going to do." I didn't actually tell anyone.

PLAYBOY: Why not?

TUCKER: Because I didn't want them to mess up my dream. Being from Atlanta and telling people I was going to be a stand-up comedian and an actor? It was pretty far-fetched. PLAYBOY: When did you first perform on a stage?

TUCKER: One time in high school I got in trouble and was sent to the principal's office. The secretary, who was oversee­ing a talent show, was saying, "We don't have a host." So I said, "I'll do it." It paid $35. I remember telling my first joke and

getting a laugh. It was the best feeling I'd had in my whole life. PLAYBOY: How often were you in trouble? TUCKER: So much that the principal and 1 became so tight and saw each other so often, we'd talk about his problems. I was just trying to get by. I'd cheat off people's tests, and when the teacher caught me, I'd say. "At least I'm trying!" PLAYBOY: You worked church into your early comedy routines. Was church an important part of your life? TUCKER: We went every Sunday. Some­times I slept through it, but it was a part of my family's life.

PLAYBOY: You once opened a stand-up comedy club with your family in Atlanta and then banned liquor sales in it. Was that on the advice of your pastor? TUCKER: Nah. that was just an excuse to close the place down because we were losing so much of my money. We weren't making any money, so I had to do some­thing to get the place closed. I got rid of the liquor, and that did the trick. PLAYBOY: What did you learn about work­ing with family?

TUCKER: Don't work with your family. I'd go to the club, nobody would be there, we'd make no money, and yet everybody would be driving a new car. PLAYBOY: When did you first get on a pro­fessional stage?

TUCKER: As soon as I graduated from high school, a comedy club, the Com­edy Act Theater, opened in Atlanta. I sat right in the front. There was a spotlight so bright, you could see everything—the spit coming out of the comic's mouth. I will never forget that moment. It was almost spiritual. I said. "I've got to do this." It became all I focused on. and I got onstage for amateur nights, which were every Tuesday. PLAYBOY: How did you do when you first performed?

TUCKER: It took time to develop mate­rial worth standing ovations, but I did well enough to know I was on the right track. I got laughs. They didn't boo me. I was quick. I did only, like, three minutes: Two quick jokes I knew would get laughs, and then I got off the stage. They were like, "Ha-ha... hey, where'd he go? I want to see him again." I had to get oil* quick because I didn't have that much material. I got real popular. People knew I'd be funny and then I'd be gone. It was like teasing them.

PLAYBOY: Did it take you a long time to gel good at stand-up? TUCKER: I was naturally good at it, like it was an instinct. As the youngest of six kids, I always had to cause a commotion to get some attention. I just developed that into stand-up.

PLAYBOY: When did you know you had arrived as a stand-up? TUCKER: I'll never forget it. It was when Richard I'ryor came to one of my shows (concluded on page 122)

CHRIS TUCKER

(continued from page 52) and told me I was funny. This was early on, and he was in a wheelchair, but he was still communicating well. It just blew me away.

PLAYBOY: What was your biggest break?

TUCKER: I moved to L.A. at the time Def Comedy Jam was really hot. I did the first stand-up special. It was seven really good minutes. That was all I had, but a lot of people were watch­ing. After that I was able to tour and make a living. One of the producers of the House Party movies saw Def Comedy Jam. I got a little part from that, and I got an agent from that cameo. Then I heard about Friday. PLAYBOY: How did you land that role? TUCKER: I auditioned. They knew of me from the comedy circuit, and they were looking for new blood. I was so ready to move on to film. I had been up against D.L. Hughley for a TV series about bike messengers in New York. He got it after the third audi­tion. When we were walking out and I felt like the world was ending, my manager told me I'd gotten Friday. I was so happy because I didn't want to do TV. We made Friday in 20 days on no budget, and I nailed that, too. PLAYBOY: Your stepping-stone to Rush Hour was Money Talks. Its original director left because he didn't like your style. What happened? TUCKER: Steve Chase—I think that was his name—was a good commercial director. He misunderstood me, and we just didn't get each other. I come from stand-up, and I like to improv a lot. That probably made him nervous because his directing style in commer­cials was to script everything out. Brett Ratner came in two weeks before we started shooting, and we've also worked together on the Rush Hour films. PLAYBOY: How about the original Rush Hour}

TUCKER: After Money Talks, New Line and I wanted to do a bigger movie, and they wanted me to buddy up with Jackie. New Line had distributed his old movies and wanted to put him in an American film. They were con­sidering Martin Lawrence and Wes­ley Snipes, too. I was blessed to get it. It put me in this position. Making people laugh is actually a difficult thing, but you get so much gratifica­tion when you do it right. It's worth more than gold.

PLAYBOY: And if they're going to pay you a Tom Cruise-size salary every now and then?

TUCKER: That's fine too. And I need it because, as you've pointed out, I don't work that much.

Nobody else could talk about going to the movies with

Michael Jackson and hang­ing out with Bill Clinton.

No other comedian could say they've done that.

/ barely got out of high

school. School was difficult

for me—and boring. By

1 Oth grade I knew that I

wasn't going to college and

that I had to get a plan.